The companies I selected to review were Kimley-Horn and Associates, Cisco, Intuit, and The Cheesecake Factory. I selected Kimley-Horn because I was familiar with them as an engineering consulting company and wanted to know more for my own applications in the future. Cisco and Intuit are both “Information Technology” companies, which meant that I could have a clear comparison between the two within a similar industry. And finally, I chose the Cheesecake Factory because I was interested to see HR practices within the hospitality industry.
Reading the pages about each of these companies, I was able to identify some common features about why employees enjoy working there so much. Some key words that came up were ‘people’, ‘culture’, ‘benefits’, ‘leadership’, and ‘team’. These are all factors that are within HR’s scope of influence, and can be affected by the decisions that we make in how a company is structured and run. It seems like the best companies make an effort to prioritize the well being of their employees, and make sure that they are able to bond with and enjoy the people and teams that they interact with every day at work.
For me, I want to be the kind of manager that inspires people to work hard by leading by example. Something that I strive to do in my current leadership positions is be aware of my team members strengths and weaknesses, and always offer myself as a support with tasks to be done. I think some of the things I perceive as being hardest about being a manger are conflict resolution, and having to reprimand employees. For the most part, I can handle this, but I know as a people-pleaser it is difficult to have those kind of conversations, especially as we hope to get along with the people we work with.
